Badie receives latest life sentence from Egypt court

A Cairo court has sentenced Mohamed Badie, the spiritual leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and 18 other prominent Brotherhood figures to life in prison over an attack on a police station in 2013.

At least five people were killed in the attack on the police station in the coastal city of Port Said, following a deadly crackdown by security forces on two Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo in 2013.

The assault was part of a wave of violence that rocked the country after the army removed elected president Mohamed Morsi from power following mass protests against his rule in June 2013.

Badie has already been sentenced to several death and life sentences.

Senior Brotherhood figure Mohamed El-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy, a cleric, were also sentenced to life imprisonment on Saturday.

The Cairo Criminal Court handed a variety of jail terms to scores of other defendants in the same case, the latest mass verdict against the outlawed group in Egypt.

Seventy-six were tried in absentia, according to state-run newspaper al-Ahram. The rulings can be appealed.

Egyptian authorities have rounded up thousands of Brotherhood members since the overthrow of Morsi, a senior Brotherhood official.

Hundreds of the group's members and followers have since been put on trial and given harsh sentences in mutiple cases.

Rights advocates have repeatedly criticised the mass prosecutions, saying they lack guarantees for a fair trial.

The Egyptian government says the country's judiciary operates independently.